Rjkjr

Q: Folder Action Dispatcher

Folder Actions Dispatcher sits in memory, and grows and grows until it consumes over 2 GB.  It will typically ask for as much as 50% of the CPU as well.  Then it usually crashes, but not before consuming the RAM that should be available for other applications.

 

I did some sleuthing, and found a com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist file in the ~Library/Launch Agents folder.  Something is changing it very frequently.

Inside, the file contains the following script: 

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

  <key>Label</key>

  <string>com.apple.FolderActions.folders</string>

  <key>Program</key>

  <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>

  <key>ProgramArguments</key>

  <array>

  <string>osascript</string>

  <string>-e</string>

  <string>tell application "Folder Actions Dispatcher" to tick</string>

  </array>

  <key>WatchPaths</key>

  <array>

  <string>/Applications</string>

  </array>

</dict>

</plist>

 

I conclude that some application somewhere is causing AppleScript to watch /Applications for changes, for some reason.  I don't know why this would cause Folder Actions Dispatcher to grow and grow as it does.

 

Questions:

  • is there a way to find the "author" or "owner" (a program) of the script and stop it?
  • I cannot delete the file -- are there innocuous changes to it that might cause it to stop behaving this way?


thank you

Mac Pro

Posted on Jul 26, 2014 9:01 AM

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Q: Folder Action Dispatcher

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  • by red_menace,

    red_menace red_menace Jul 26, 2014 10:39 AM in response to Rjkjr
    Level 6 (15,526 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 26, 2014 10:39 AM in response to Rjkjr

    That file is owned by the system.  The WatchPaths are whatever you have set up with the Folder Actions Setup.

  • by Rjkjr,

    Rjkjr Rjkjr Jul 29, 2014 6:57 AM in response to red_menace
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2014 6:57 AM in response to red_menace

    Thanks so much for your reply.

     

    How are Folder Actions set up?  Perhaps I did this inadvertently, but I'm not even sure what application / configuration file I would use to do it!

     

    best,

     

    rob

  • by Frank Caggiano,

    Frank Caggiano Frank Caggiano Jul 29, 2014 10:47 AM in response to Rjkjr
    Level 7 (25,782 points)
    Jul 29, 2014 10:47 AM in response to Rjkjr

    Right click on the file and select Services from the menu then Folder Actions Setup

     

    Screen Shot 2014-07-29 at 13.38.46 .png

     

    This will open

     

    Screen Shot 2014-07-29 at 13.38.57 .png

    Check to see which (if any) folders have actions. If you didn;t turn it on intntionally disable it.

  • by ho238,

    ho238 ho238 Aug 3, 2014 9:48 AM in response to Frank Caggiano
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 3, 2014 9:48 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

    Thank you so much.

    After upgrade to yosemite beta, I encountered similar problem which 1-2 folder actions dispatcher keep running in the background and these processes keep draining the RAM. Your reply helped me to solve the problem.

  • by odontojeter2,

    odontojeter2 odontojeter2 Oct 19, 2014 5:08 AM in response to Frank Caggiano
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 19, 2014 5:08 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

    This certainly works but not knowing all the nuances I had to resort to unchecking "Enable Folder Actions". It stopped my memory drain.  But "LaunchAgents" and "LaunchDaemons" were each listed three times in "Folders with Actions" and still checked on.  Is this a problem?

  • by DragonDave,

    DragonDave DragonDave Oct 22, 2014 5:39 AM in response to odontojeter2
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 22, 2014 5:39 AM in response to odontojeter2

    I had the same problem, with the same solution. That is, I had several locations of .../LaunchAgents and .../LaunchDaemons in my folder actions list. After letting the system sit for about 6 hours (doing absolutely nothing), the memory usage of Folder Actions Dispatcher grew to 20 GB (yes, GB). This rendered the system pretty much unusable.

     

    After deleting the folder actions and turning off folder actions, everything seems fine.

     

    I've posted a bug with Apple...

  • by Nidan.2006,

    Nidan.2006 Nidan.2006 Oct 25, 2014 12:18 PM in response to DragonDave
    Level 1 (75 points)
    Oct 25, 2014 12:18 PM in response to DragonDave

    I had the same problem. After some experimenting, I discovered that Folder Actions Dispatcher started spinning when I included a "new item alert" for ~/Library/LaunchAgents. If I remove this folder from the list of Folders with Actions, then Folder Actions Dispatcher behaves itself. Currently I have actions set up for LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons in /System/Library and /Library and for /bin. I have no idea why the one particular folder/dir causes the problem behavior. There are only five plist files in there, and none have changed since I upgraded to Yosemite.

     

    Apple needs to fix this. Folder Actions Dispatcher is a useful security watchdog.

  • by DragonDave,

    DragonDave DragonDave Oct 27, 2014 5:19 AM in response to Nidan.2006
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 5:19 AM in response to Nidan.2006

    After posting a bug with Apple, they asked me to gather some diagnostic information. This allowed me to research it a little further.

     

    It looks like the Folder Actions Dispatcher creates its own set of files in ~/Library/LaunchAgents. One of them - com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist - seems to constantly get updated (touched) when that folder is in the folders list. This seems to cause a bit of a feedback loop, which causes Folder Actions Dispatcher to chew up virtual RAM in a serious way.

  • by skot_shenton,

    skot_shenton skot_shenton Oct 29, 2014 10:53 AM in response to Frank Caggiano
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2014 10:53 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

    Thank you so much you don't know how much this has been getting on my nerves, weeks! i thought i needed more ram.

     

    thank you again

  • by Michael Walther,

    Michael Walther Michael Walther Nov 2, 2014 5:47 AM in response to Rjkjr
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 2, 2014 5:47 AM in response to Rjkjr

    Same goes for me.  Every day since I upgraded from Mavericks to Yosemite, I was wondering why my iMac w/16 GB RAM would steadily swap.  Activity Monitor showed that 'Folder Action Dispatcher' was occupying an obscene 13.5 GB of RAM - and growing.

    To make a long story short, under Mavericks, I had written a small script as a folder action that was watching all LaunchAgent folders, in order to save them from manipulation.  This was working without a hitch in Mavericks, but not so any more in Yosemite. 

    After disabling all folder actions, the system was healthy again.

    Guess it's a bug, not a feature.

  • by ElZede,

    ElZede ElZede Nov 11, 2014 3:48 AM in response to Rjkjr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2014 3:48 AM in response to Rjkjr

    Thanks for you and all the other contributors.

    Since I've updated to Yosemite, I've spent my time killing, many times a day, the process Folder Actions Dispatcher through Activity .

    With you help, I've done some cleaning and now everything runs well

    Thanks Again

  • by prk60091,

    prk60091 prk60091 Nov 16, 2014 9:01 AM in response to DragonDave
    Level 1 (40 points)
    Nov 16, 2014 9:01 AM in response to DragonDave

    TThis solved the issue

     

    thanks

  • by mzkx67,

    mzkx67 mzkx67 Nov 17, 2014 3:39 PM in response to Rjkjr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2014 3:39 PM in response to Rjkjr

    After installing Yosemite, my MAC was sitting there spinning. Sometimes it was so slow I couldn't get to the Activity monitor for about 5 minutes. I turned off the folder actions and it's back to normal now.... thanks!!

  • by Corey Edwards,

    Corey Edwards Corey Edwards Nov 18, 2014 1:17 PM in response to Rjkjr
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Nov 18, 2014 1:17 PM in response to Rjkjr

    Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this thread. I had been having issues with my Mac this week and I was losing my mind with it. I finally discovered Folder Actions Dispatcher to be the culprit. Ten minutes of quacking around with DuckDuckGo, and I found this thread and fixed my problem.

     

    Thanks again to everyone who contributed to this!

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